Pampa power station

{{#badges:CoalSwarm|Navbar-Brazilcoal}}Pampa power station, also known as Pampa Sul coal plant or Miroel Wolowski coal plant (UTE Pampa Sul or UTE Miroel Wolowski in Portuguese) is a 340- to 640-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Candiota, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Background

A project of Tractebel Energia SA, the Pampa plant languished for many years in the shadow of Tractebel's larger Seival power plant.[1] However, with the sale of Seival to MPX Energia in November 2010 [2] and President Dilma's March 2013 decision to re-open Brazil's energy auctions to coal plants [3], Pampa got a new lease on life. As of August 2013 companies from China, Spain and Korea had expressed interest in placing construction bids. [4]

While the project met all the licensing requirements for inclusion in Brazil's August and December 2013 energy auctions, management ultimately declined to participate, citing both auctions' unviably low ceiling prices per KWh.[5][6] However, higher prices in the November 2014 auction encouraged Tractebel to participate, and the Pampa power station emerged as the lone successful bidder for a coal-fired project. Plans call for construction of the plant to begin in the first half of 2015, with a completion date no later than December 2018. Starting in 2019, the R$1.8 billion project is expected to generate 340 MW annually over a 25 year period.[7]

In April 2015, the Brazilian news site Valor Econômico cited statements from Tractebel's CFO Eduardo Sattamini indicating that Tractebel has plans for a second unit that would raise the Pampa plant's capacity to 640 MW. The report speculated that Tractebel might bid for increased capacity at Brazil's April 30 national energy auction[8], but Tractebel did not appear on the official list of bidders published by ANEEL (Brazil's energy regulation authority)[9] and no new coal projects were approved in the April 30 auction.[10]

In June 2015, Tractebel announced that Brazil's national environment agency IBAMA had issued a permit allowing construction to begin at the Pampas plant site. The plant was reported as 340 MW. Initial work was expected to begin during the first two weeks of July, with completion of the plant now projected for January 2019.[11]

As of 2016, construction work was already underway. Between May and December 2016, Tractebel's website announced completion of the pedestal base for the plant's turbine generator[12] and initial work on the boiler[13], electrical transmission lines, a 4.17km conveyor belt system[14] and a 200m chimney.[15]

In August 2017, two years after construction began, Tractebel representative Hugo Roger Stamm announced that 50% of Unit I’s structures were complete, including the transmission line and most of the conveyor belt system, and that the plant was on track to begin operational testing in the second half of 2018, with commercial electricity production to begin in January 2019.[16] In January 2018, Tractabel announced that construction was 75% complete and that the total cost of the project was now R $2.5 billion.[17]

In August 2017, press reports cited the 300MW Pampa Sul II project as one of four possible coal-fired contenders in Brazil’s upcoming A-6 energy auction.[18] However, there were ultimately no successful bids from coal projects in the December 2017 auction, with the Brazilian government granting virtually all new energy contracts to wind and natural gas-fueled projects instead.[19]

In April 2018, as part of its plan to decarbonise its portfolio, Engie attempted to sell the Pampa Sul project and its Jorge Lacerda power station to Contour Global but the sale fell through over a disagreement on the projects' valuation.[20] In September 2018 it was reported that China’s State Power Investment Corp (SPIC) was in talks with Engie SA to purchase Pampa Sul.[21] In January 2019 Engie gave a planned commissioning date of May 2019 or June 2019 for Unit 1, and announced that it would not try to sell the plant until it was commissioned.[22]